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Via Crucis: The final Holy Week journey of Pope Francis

During Holy Week 2025, Pope Francis was called to share in the mystery of Christ’s passion. No one knows whether he had some premonition that it would be his final week, but one thing was certain: He prepared himself for it.

• Pope Leo XIV calls for Middle East ceasefire

  

  By JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES, OSV News
  Published March 15, 2026

  Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East and condemned the “atrocious violence” of the U.S.-Israeli-led war on Iran, which has spread across the region.

• Pope Leo warns of ‘irreparable abyss,’ if diplomacy doesn’t take over violence in Iran, Middle East

  

  By PAULINA GUZIK, OSV News
  Published March 1, 2026

  Pope Leo XIV issued a fervent appeal for return of diplomacy in “these dramatic hours” in the Middle East and Iran, condemning use of weapons that cause “destruction, pain, and death.”

• Dare to be free, join exodus from stagnation, pope says on Ash Wednesday

  

  By CAROL GLATZ, Catholic News Service
  Published February 18, 2026

  Pope Leo XIV marked the beginning of Lent with the traditional procession on Rome’s Aventine Hill on Ash Wednesday.